Saturday, February 7, 2009

How do you stay on a food budget?

Last weekend I didn't manage to get to the supermarket, so I lived off what food I had in my pantry and freezer, plus I ate out.

I spent $30.00 on take out food during the week, plus I hit the corner store for wine and a box of fish sticks, $12.00. Yesterday I went on a vending machine rampage: Diet coke, Kit Kat bar, vanilla creme cookies, and pretzel sticks. I don't even want to add it up.

I think Diet Coke is the trigger for my sugar cravings. Trouble is, my workplace is overheated and the water cooler is malfunctioning, (boss refuses to have it fixed
due to the recession.) Diet Coke beckons, although it actually makes me thirstier, I've noticed. Solution: I need to bring a gallon of water to work everyday.

Obviously, I either stay on top of the grocery thing, or end up spending too much on take out food. There is no way around it, its just better for me to be organized so I don't have to resort to take out. What I have learned keeping this blog, however, is that its just as easy to go overboard and spent $111.00 at the store, buying all the ingredients for five recipes, as it is to spent $50.00 on take out, plus eating out of the pantry. There must be a way to keep oneself fed, eating healthy food, for $30.00 a week. That's what I'm trying to figure out how to do.

1 comment:

  1. You're right - the diet soda will cause cravings. In November, I stopped eating/drinking diet stuff. No diet colas, sugar-free sweeteners, low-cal whatever. I started eating real food. Whatever I wanted, whenever I got hungry. I lost 12 lbs. (YMMV)

    Vending machines - used to be a big problem for me. Now I do not carry any cash at all with me. No change, no bills. I can pretty well guarantee that, eventually, your friends will get tired of you asking for change, and at that point your vending machine habit will be gone.

    I also used to be really bad about ordering pizza, until I got into an argument over a pizza that was delivered cold. I told them Hades would freeze over before I ordered from them again. I meant it. Haven't had a pizza from takeout since then. I make my own now.

    Good luck with it all!

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